Fort Wayne|New Haven|46774 Computer|PC Repair|Service|Support. Grantham Computer Consulting

I think I have a computer virus!

shane — Sun, 20 May 2012 02:00:31 +0000

This week I had at least two service calls where my clients thought they were infected with computer viruses. My first client told me the computer was acting funny but didn’t see any alerts or pop-ups on the screen. The computer didn’t have any protection and it seemed logical to think it was infected with malware. Earlier in the year I was at this client and cleaned up an infection on this computer. I thought the client was going to install security software, but never did. After doing my malware scans with two or three products, nothing was found and I knew it wasn’t a virus. I did some more checking and discovered the hard drive holding the operating system was almost full! The second client had a mysterious pop-up appear while uploading pictures to a picture web site. Then an icon disappeared on the Windows XP desktop. I connected remotely, checked the status of the security software which was current. I scanned with it and another one and neither found anything significant. We never did determine what happened and I should have got more information from the client before proceeding.

What a variety!

shane — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:09:09 +0000

This week I had a short service call where I had a wide variety of tasks. First, I was asked to diagnose a laptop with a display problem. After being powered on for two minutes, the display dims and can’t be seen. I had a hunch the Display had failed and proved this by connecting my external monitor to the VGA connector and had a perfect picture. Number 2: two years ago I had set up a wireless network for this client. Now, new users attempting to connect were unable to. I used my laptop to prove the wireless network was still operational and it was. I compared the login credentials with mine and found they were incorrect. They had old information. Third: The client wanted to know how to use the networking site Linkedin.com and I showed them a few options. I searched LinkedIn contacts for people in a certain industry in Fort Wayne to show the powerful search feature. And I showed how to message a contact. Four: the client had a VHS VCR tape deck which had lines across the television screen occasionally during tape playback. They assumed the playback heads needed cleaned. I had another idea; the tape head tracking needed adjusting when a new tape is played. I showed the client how to adjust the tracking up and down with the front-panel controls. That’s about as diverse as one service call can get!

Georgetown Networking -thanks Vic, Steve and Dan

shane — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:21:28 +0000

Tuesday morning I attended Georgetown Networking at Georgetown Bowl. Some others in attendance were Vic Sockrider, Steve Sandstrom, Jane Schwartz, Mike Moses, Dan Surface, Mark Pfeiffer, Richard Reed, Michelle McCarel, and Bill Hartman. Some of us bowled first before the meeting. Vic and Steve setup 7-pin no tap and Jane almost got a perfect game. Networking and bowling go well together and if you haven’t done it come out and give it a try. Dan Surface presented the program of 13 ways to promote your business which gave me some new ways to promote myself. Dan always gets us involved in the discussion and I learned much this meeting. Come out every Tuesday at 730AM join us.

Starting to understand the Linux Ubuntu 12 operating system

shane — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:29:29 +0000

Canonical, the creators of Ubuntu Linux, changed the appearance of the desktop in Ubuntu 11 and 12. I was accustomed to the old interface of 8.9.and 10.x and found it quite useful. When the new 11.x came out last year I downloaded it and tried it out but couldn’t figure out how to get any programs started. There used to be an applications button on the menu and it was missing now. I got frustrated and went back to Ubuntu 10.10 and stayed there until support expired in April of this year. It still runs, but won’t be supported any longer with updates from what I understand. So today I tried again to start a simple program in version 12 which was installed on my main laptop which runs Windows 7. I found the answer after about 10 minutes: they have included a Ubuntu icon named “dash home” at the top of the new program strip on the left side of the desktop. If you click dash home icon, the application icons appear! Now I can start using it. Now why would you care about the Linux operating system? It’s robust, fast, secure and in most cases free as in Ubuntu. It runs on about any computer which runs Microsoft Windows. So if your tired of Microsoft Windows, Linux is a great addition or replacement.

Hard drive full?

shane — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:40:51 +0000

I had a client recently ask about errors they were getting when they were moving files from their Windows computer to their external drive and back. The computer was also getting slower and slower. After investigating I found the hard drive almost full. Once we cleaned it up, the problems ceased. Generally, keeping your hard drive at least 10% free will keep it running faster and without copy errors.

Should your email address match your web site?

shane — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:04:02 +0000

The last couple of days I have been updating contact information for my computer clients; adding emails, web sites, and tracking down incorrect emails, etc. I occasionally encounter business people who have company web sites and use different email addresses to send business email. What I mean is in my case, the web site is gconsult.us. My email address is shane@gconsult.us which matches. But other businesses have a web site like My-business-site.com and use an unmatched email as in stupid567@goobermail.com. Or cutebunsOO@poorimage.net. Some people don’t realize that if you have a web site you’re paying for, you also have email addresses available with the same domain name. Ask your web site hosting company about using your web site email if you’re not now. Or ask me and I can look into it. It will put you and your company in a more professional light.

Why I have a LinkedIn.com account

shane — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:47:07 +0000

I discuss LinkedIn.com (LI) quite often with networkers and professionals. LinkedIn is a what call I call a business social media site. You won’t find pictures of cute animals or discussions about peanut butter sandwiches which look like famous people. You’ll find professional groups to educate you, recommendations for your contacts and yourself, posts about business-related articles and job opportunities. I have connected people using the “get introduced through a connection” service. Sunday, a client called me to say a friend’s company needed computer support and said they are a LI contact. I proeceeded to search his contacts and send them a message to connect. I can view what the company does so I’m not surprised when I arrive. I’ve had companies want to check out my credentials and reliability by asking for a resume. I suggest they find me on LI and connect and they will find all my information. If you don’t have a web page, then Linkedin can be a way for people to find you. Half the networkers I ask have a LinkedIn account and those that do have accounts, most don’t have any idea what to do with it. I can assist with that. If you aren’t active on LI, at least have a current profile on it and have a picture. And one piece important piece of advice: have your phone number, email address and web site on LI also. Many times I look for a phone number on someone’s contact info never to find it. Make it easy to be found!

What happens when you combine an after-hours event and a Networking Group?

shane — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:24:11 +0000

Last Thursday I attended the monthly CU@Georgetown networking party which also had the New Haven Chamber Meet Me@5. This was held at the Georgetown Bowl in Fort Wayne. We had many people in the lounge and I want to thank to Vic Sockrider for hosting and all the food and drinks. I ran into Dan Hodges, Jeff Abbott, Gary Kasunic, and Vince Buchanon from the old New Haven Chamber of Commerce Networking Group from 2005-2007. From the Georgetown group, I saw Shironna G, Dan Surface who mc’d, Sally Segerson, Beth Flagg, Steve Jehl, Al Wasvick, and many others. Dan Hodges and I got to talk about networking and blogs and he introduced me to some of his friends and we talked about computers, LinkedIn and viruses. The after-hours events are great for re-connecting with past contacts and networkers. I don’t think Dan and I have talked this much at one time and if not for this event it probably wouldn’t have happened. Gary and I talked about his business and his family which was interesting. Anytime you have a chance to attend an after-hours networking event you should. It gives you more time than a noon-time or morning networking event.

I’ve always wanted to do this

shane — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:10:50 +0000

One of my expertise’s is Virus detection, removal and prevention. I’ve been fighting viruses ever since 1995 when I worked at Needham’s Business Machines and I discovered the Monkey B virus at one of our clients. I’ve always wanted to configure a Windows PC completely unprotected, place it on the internet in front of a firewall and see how infected I can get it. I did this over the weekend with a Windows XP SP2 computer. The Windows Firewall is disabled as well as Windows updates. No security software is installed. I placed it in the DMZ of my router so it doesn’t have the firewall’s protection. Then I started browsing the internet and searching for all kind of things as in “slow computer”, “computer virus” and downloading music and movies. If a site offered a download, I gladly accepted it and installed it. I now have 3 “speed booster” type programs installed, a music download program and a emoticon program. At one point, it slowed to a crawl and I opened a command windows and ran a netstat -a to see what internet connections the computer had and there were probably 20-25 going to who knows where. I had no web browsers open so most of the connections were probably unauthorized due to my behavior on the internet and lack of security. As a good measure I added a gambling site and downloaded something for it. Now I have 2 or 3 search toolbars in Internet Explorer that I didn’t install. I’m now going to see if I can disinfect it because it’s too slow to use.

Yes it was me- I accidently took down my web site

shane — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:07:37 +0000

Tuesday night I had the bright idea to change part of my web site. I had done this task earlier this year with help from my web master so I thought I could do it again. WRONG! I managed to disable the site where nothing could be seen. Lisa, my web designer, managed to bring it up this morning after spending hours trying to figure out what I had done. she asked, ” what did you do? what steps did you take?” And like some of my clients I remembered a few but not everything I did. So I won’t do that again! And I thought I had backed up my web site to my local computer, but couldn’t find anything. So I backed it up so I would have it in case this happens again. Thank Goodness Lisa had the part we needed on her computer and could copy it back or it may still be down.